Why You Should Make A WILL?

A WILL is simply a declaration made in documentary form, telling the whole world how you want your personal properties to be shared or distributed after your death.

From the definition, two things are clear:

1. That a WILL takes effect only after you die. Before you die, your WILL is as useless as its non-existence;

2. That a WILL covers only your personal or individual property. A WILL cannot cover a property jointly owned with others. Thus, when it comes to a jointly owned property, you cannot give it out in your WILL. Rather, you can give out your interest or right in the joint property, but not the joint property.

A person who makes a WILL is a Testator, and a person who benefits under a WILL is a Beneficiary.

There is something I call the ‘default position’ or the ‘default settings’. This default position may also be referred to as the notorious PNDC Law 111. This PNDC Law 111 governs the distribution of the properties of a person who dies without making a WILL.

In effect, the laws of Ghana have given every Ghanaian the opportunity to decide how he or she wants his or her properties to be shared after he or she dies. If one fails to take advantage of this opportunity and dies, then the default position will determine how the person’s properties should be shared or distributed.

Unless and until you make a WILL, by default settings your properties will be shared in accordance with the laid down laws enacted by persons who may not be relatives or members of your family (members of parliament). Thus, by default position, if you don’t share your properties whilst alive, the law will share them for you when you die.

It is against the application of this default position, to the sharing of your properties upon your demise, that I advise and encourage you to take charge and distribute your own properties before you die by making a WILL.